Thinking About Freelancing? Here’s What You Need to Know

Every third person I meet chats with me about Freelancing and their opinion of it – to them it’s the quickest way to make money! Now as a freelancer, I know that it’s not that easy.

Let’s unpack what you need to know about freelancing.

I must say it is the second hardest thing I have ever done – after becoming a mom, that is. 

It’s literally like raising a child, and although my business is only 4 years old, it still has a long road ahead.

As a freelancer in the social media field for 4 years and counting, the only way that I got this far was by remembering why I started. 

You must have your goals written out to remind you on the challenging days why you started.

Growing a business on social media is easy (in my biased opinion) but running a business is the challenging part, especially when you have had no prior experience in managing a business. It’s the financial aspects of balancing sheets, paying workers, paying tools, and, of course, paying yourself that can seem daunting. 

What helped me to stay focused on running and growing my business was the following:

Entering Freelancing: What to Know

1. Keeping A List of Things That You Want to Achieve and Updating It Regularly

It’s surprising to see how many goals you can achieve when you put your mind to it. One of the things that I wrote about on my goals list was to buy a car, and 2 years later I bought a car. It was a refreshing feeling ticking off those goals as I went along and adding others to it.

2. Know Your Why

As mentioned previously, running a business without prior experience or knowledge feels daunting, there will be days when you ask yourself why! And days where you are head over heels for what it is that you are doing. The key here is to keep focus and write down your why. What kept me going for the past 4 years was the fact that I wanted to spend more time with my daughter and be able to have flexible working hours so that I could drop her off and pick her up from school, amongst other things. Know your why and have this staring at your every day. I promise it helps.

3. Have A Plan

Write down what exactly it is that you are doing to do – sell a product or service – and have a plan of execution. Think about what your target audience is going to look like. Think about how much revenue it is that you are going to make. Consider how much profit you want to walk away with monthly, so that you can see how much you need to sell/ or charge for your services or products.

4. Get to Know Marketing

You honestly don’t need to know everything. Just start off small. Start off by thinking about what channels you need to be on. Is it TikTok, or is it LinkedIn? The answers to that would depend on your business goals and your target audiences. Invest in social tools such as scheduling tools so that automation is part of your day to day. I would suggest choosing 1-2 platforms at first and then add on other platforms to increase your online exposure. 

Freelancing takes hard work and patience and, honestly speaking, isn’t for everybody and that is okay. Think about whether freelancing is for you – before you start trying it out. 

If you are interested in learning about becoming a social media freelancer, check out my social media profile.

About the Author

Name: Ruth Daniels

Professional Title: CEO

Bio: Ruth Daniels is a Social Media Manager specialising in content creation, awareness, and brand growth

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